War of words as new draft plan released

MORETON Bay Regional Council Mayor Allan Sutherland has described the "disgusting manner" in which residents were used "as political pawns" by the previous LNP State Government during his speech ahead of the release of the latest draft planning scheme tonight.

Mayor Sutherland was referring to the decision by then Infrastructure and Planning Minister Jeff Seeney to instruct the council to remove climate change provisions for sea level rise from its original planning scheme.

Mayor Sutherland went on to say he was an "independent mayor", before thanking the current Planning Minister Jackie Trad for "making herself available" regarding the "council's plight".

"I hope never to be part of a council again that is used as political pawns."

Ms Trad has previously said she prioritised the need to reverse the Ministerial Direction.

However, Mr Seeney dismissed Mayor Sutherland's criticism, and said the mayor had in fact asked him to issue the Ministerial Directive due to dissatisfaction among the mayor's constituents.

"He had a huge political problem," Mr Seeney said.

"I, regrettably now, tried to help him out of that problem.

"He was in a lot of political trouble because he had impacted the original town plan - he had impacted on thousands of constituents and he had left his house out."

Mayor Sutherland's multi-million dollar canal front home at Newport on the Redcliffe Peninsula was classified "risk free", while his neighbours were deemed to be in the medium to high flood risk zone.

The issue was reported in media last December, and at the time Mayor Sutherland said he had nothing to do with why his house was risk free, saying it was a decision made by an external contractor.

He also said his house was higher than neighbouring homes.

Mr Seeney also said the Ministerial Directive was not to ignore climate change, but to bring the Moreton Bay Region in line with Brisbane and Sunshine Coast town plans.

"It became obvious there was an enormous amount of community disaffection because there was this difference," he said.

"What I believe and the line I drew in the sand was they had to achieve a consistency with Brisbane and the Sunshine Coast in terms of habitable floor heights.

"To do this… the council had to take the town plan back and redo it or we had to direct them.

"Once they notified [the public] their opportunities to change were limited in their view… for a whole range of reasons. The mayor was worried about that due to liabilities and things like that so to avoid that he asked me to issue the directive.

"He has since tried to shift, as politicians always do, shift those arguments somewhere else… but it doesn't worry me much anymore, I don't particularly care what Allan Sutherland says about me - I have a very low opinion of him."

In a statement to Caboolture News, Mayor Sutherland called on the Queensland Opposition to reconsider their support for Jeff Seeney as chair of Queensland Parliament's Crime and Corruption Committee.

"He instructed this council last year via a Ministerial Direction to remove climate change provisions from our planning scheme - a move that has cost our ratepayers in excess of a million dollars.

"This was a Ministerial Direction made of no other council in Queensland and based upon Mr Seeney's view that climate change is a "semi-religious belief."

Mayor Sutherland said the time for Jeff Seeney to politically interfere in the region's draft planning scheme was over.

"He is no longer the Deputy Premier or Minister for Infrastructure and Planning, he is not the Shadow Minister, nor is he a State Member in this region. In fact his electorate office in Callide is more than 500km or 5 hour's drive from our region," the Mayor said.

"Queenslanders should rightly ask themselves what is this man up to?"

"For Jeff Seeney to now talk about my family home points to his ongoing politicisation of a significant proposed planning policy - that just needs to stop."

Mayor Sutherland said his family home was no different to scores of other properties in his neighbourhood which had been filled some 30 years ago.

"Our region is sick of this political saga. Jeff Seeney just needs to go away and leave the people of our region in peace. He has caused enough headaches to last a lifetime."

Mayor Sutherland said he looked forward to the community now having an opportunity to review the new draft planning scheme.

The new draft planning scheme will be released on the Council's website at 12.01am tonight.